ESPN sorry for offensive Jeremy Lin headline

If racism isn’t a fireable offense at ESPN, extreme stupidity ought to be.

Either way, someone probably needs to go after the network used the word “chink,” an offensive term for Asian Americans, in an ESPN.com headline to describe a rough night by NBA sensation Jeremy Lin.

Lin is the NBA’s first American-born player of Chinese or Taiwanese descent, according to the AP.

The headline (Chink in the Armor) was removed roughly 35 minutes after it went live following Lin’s nine-turnover night and was first reported by Outsports.com.

In its place, a more straight-forward headline was substituted: “Hornets slow down Jeremy Lin, snap Knicks’ winning streak.”

Simple. To the point. Not offensive to the 17.3 million Asian Americans living in this country (2010 U.S. Census) now getting their basketball scores from Fox Sports.

Definitely an improvement.

ESPN told the AP it is “conducting a complete review of our cross-platform editorial procedures and are determining appropriate disciplinary action to ensure this does not happen again. We regret and apologize for this mistake.”

Oh, come on. Just fire the guy.

And while you’re at it, give a stern talking-to to whoever came up with “Can’t Lin them all” for an opening sentence.

And it wasn’t just used in a headline. Listen carefully to the announcer: